How do these responses change over time? The slope stayed near -0.75 for half of the experiment, then deviated to become shallower. Comparing real communities vs. "no interaction" controls showed that species interactions - not just individual physiology - drive these changing patterns over time.

In species-rich communities, warming favored small protists much more than large ones, steepening the size-abundance slope. At low richness? Temperature had minimal effect. This suggests that complex species interactions amplify thermal effects on community size structure.